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Chapter 10
The Building Campaign of 1825
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
Macadamized Roads
The construction work that took place at the university during the rest of the spring and
summer, and into the fall of 1825, must be viewed through scanty records. Although the
process of building was winding down, Jefferson was as eager as ever to turn his inventive
mind toward a novel approach, and accordingly he directed his attention towards the
feasibility of laying macadamized roads for the streets and alleys that criss-crossed his
Academical Village. For some time he had "heard and read a great deal" about the
road-making method of John Loudon McAdam, the Scottish road surveyor and merchant of
New York. McAdam's method had become popular in England because it proved "much
superior to the former roads, and much cheaper." Therefore Jefferson cheerfully escorted a
"Mr. Owens" on a tour of the university grounds on 15 March to discuss the proper way to
lay the broken stones. From Owens, who had been at the "head of great works, and well
skilled," Jefferson heard that:
middle towards the edges 1. inch in 10. feet. the hardest stone is then broken
into small peices, no one of them to weigh more than an ounce, and the smaller
the better, this is laid on the road to a proper thickness, and duly attended to for
some time by smoothing the wheel tracks, until the mass becomes as solid and
smooth as a rock, which it soon does. he [Owens] thought 5. or 6. I. thickness
for our walks across the lawn would be abundant, and 10. or 12. I. for our
streets. we have so much hard stone, and so near, that this will be our best way
of preparing them. we will begin with the cross walks first, by way of trial. this
will render it necessary to keep your waggon till it is done. he says the breaking
of the stone is the work of children. it is probable our Professors know
something of this process. our paling should be very slight, merely of riven
slabs. three years last will be enough.[688]
The tests on the cross walks apparently produced favorable results, but soon after the
university's hired labor force began to pave the eastern street, it deviated from Mr. Owens'
directions. The difficulty stemmed from the proctor's inability to procure satisfactory sledge
hammers for the laborers to do the job.[689] Jefferson learned of the trouble and requested
Brockenbrough to correct the operation before matters went further astray. "Two or three
persons have mentioned to me their opinion that the way in which the laborers are
proceeding with the road of the Eastern street is not conformable in material circumstances
with McAdam's method," Jefferson informed the proctor. "I think you had better hold them
strictly to that; for if we differ from what has been proved good by experience, and should
fail, we should be justly blamed as wasting the public money on projects of our own, and
have to do the work over again." Jefferson went on to restate his own ideas of how the work
ought to be done:
McAdam's plan in his own words. were I to direct this work, I would first
arrange all the stone in a row on the outer side or edge of the street. then smooth
the earth 20. f. wide in the middle, making the middle 1. Inch higher than the
sides. taken there a stone of 3. oz. weight, and form an iron ring thro' which it
would just pass: then break up the whole of the stone, so that not a single one
should be larger than that, and spread it over the 20. feet of breadth 3. I. thick.
leave it thus to be used until it becomes solid, when another coat of 3. I. should
be laid on. if this (which I think is McAdam's method) has not been strictly
pursued, I would immediately change the method and go on in McAdam's way;
and if experience should hereafter shew that the part first done is not sufficient,
it may then be taken up, and done right. I would recommend to you therefore
not to lay another stone but in literal conformity with McAdam's letter.[690]
The process of macadamizing the streets, which required a "wagon & a pair of Horses
only," was not finished until about six weeks after Jefferson's death in 1826.[691]
688. TJ to Brockenbrough, 16 March 1825, ViU:PP. John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836),
who was born in Scotland, was a prominent New York Loyalist merchant who became
well-known for his crushed-rock method of road paving. Mcadamized roads became an
important feature of the American landscape by the time of the War Between the States. See
Spiro, "John Loudon McAdam in Revolutionary New York," New York Historical Society
Quarterly, 40 (1956), 28-54.
689. Thomas Brockenbrough to Brockenbrough, 4 June 1825, ViU:PP. Thomas
Brockenbrough told his brother that "I have made enquiry of several Mechanicks about the
Sledge hammers on the McAdam road making system, and none of them appear to know
what kind they are--Hutcheson and Humes both say if they had a proper description of them
they should be immediately made--Will you please give a sketch of them."
691. Committee of superintendence member John Hartwell Cocke explicitly directed the
proctor to use the hired labor to finish "compleating the McAdam ways" on 16 April 1826
(ViU:TJ), and Brockenbrough wrote to Cocke on 20 August 1826 to inform him that "the
McAdamizing of the cross streets will be finished in a day or two . . . I intend to have
another coat of Metal put over such parts of streets as require it" (ViU:JHC). John Patterson
of Pikesville, Maryland, on 7 June 1826 answered a query from Brockenbrough about the
McAdams "manner of making roads": "McAdam's plan has been adopted as nearly as the
prejudices of our road makers & managers would permit. And it is simply to break the stone
very fine, lay it on the bed of the road well shaped to let the water pass from it on the sides
into ditched drains. The only road that has been constructed in this state on these principles,
is the Boonsborough road about 12 miles in length, it was done under the direction of
McCorman, & is Said to be a perfect Specimen of excellent Workmanship-- "as to the Stone
or Metal. Our practice is to break it with hammers at 6 lbs [drawing] 3 to 4 feet of this shape
the breakers standing up & the handles somewhat longer than those of the common axes in
use with you. The stones (as I have found by a close attention to the thorough repair, or
rather renewal of 10 miles of the Rastenstown Turnpike,) are small enough to make a
smooth & firm road, when they will pass thro a reng [renge; a sieve or strainer] of two & a
half inches diameter; they are broken by the perch, what we call the Masons perch 24 feet 9
inches solid measure. The price of breaking varies according to the hardness of the Stone.
For instance. The white flint, or quartz that abounds in the vicinage of the University could
be broken here for 15 cents a perch And the black hard Stone on the river between Moores
Creek & Milton would cost 60 cents a perch. A road as firm & as durable & as smooth can
be made of the flint, as of the other. A skilful stone breaker can break 5 or 6 perches of flint
in a day, & of the other in proportion to the price. "To confine the metal at the edges when
put on the road a shoulder of Earth must be thrown up sufficient[l]y wide, and compact to
retain it as thus [drawing] Stone earth.--Our turnpike has twenty feet of broken stone in the
center, from 15 to 20 of earth on the sides when properly done-- "The breaking of Stone is a
trade & with the people you will have to employ, the Same results can not be looked for, as
we can attain here where we have been so long in the practice of the art-- "I would
recommend that you use the white flint stone rejecting all yellow flint or such as on
examination, seems proble or Apt to break into Sand with a Stroke of the hammer, The red
angellaceous stone that you have, would grind into mud, & sand Stone is utterly unfit for the
purpose-- "After preparing the bed of the road, put on the metal at three different times, it
will require patience, for before the travel shall have made it smooth there will be great
complaints of its loose, sharp & ugly looks, time however will prove its fitness--have the
tracks made by wheels carefully raked smooth, that they may not be tempted to continue in
one track, that would retain the water & injure the road--I sent to Genl Cocke some years
since McAdams' book on the subject of road making, you would find many useful
suggestions in it" (ViU:PP).
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Chapter 10
The Building Campaign of 1825
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |